{"id":493259,"date":"2026-01-05T04:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493259\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T04:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:01:11","slug":"texans-wild-card-playoff-game-vs-ravens-or-steelers-set-for-monday-night-football-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493259\/","title":{"rendered":"Texans\u2019 wild-card playoff game vs. Ravens or Steelers set for Monday Night Football next week"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON<\/strong> \u2013 The Texans are headed to prime time as they\u2019ve been assigned a plum spot in the NFL playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Texans, as the highest-ranked wild-card playoff squad, will face the AFC North champion on Monday night next week. The matchup between the fifth-seeded 12-5 Texans, riding an NFL-high nine-game winning streak, and the fourth-seeded AFC North champions, is set for a 7 p.m. Central kickoff.<\/p>\n

The Texans will face the winner between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, who are locked in a win-or-go-home rivalry game Sunday night on NBC.<\/p>\n

The Texans are the fifth team since 1990 and the first team since the 2018 Texans squad to qualify for the playoffs following an 0-3 start. They are in the playoffs for the third year in a row under coach DeMeco Ryans\u2019 leadership. The Texans are headlined by the NFL\u2019s top-ranked defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing shifts for us when it comes to our mindset,\u201d Ryans said after a 38-30 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in a regular-season finale at NRG Stadium. \u201cOur mindset never changes. We don\u2019t turn it up because we\u2019re in the playoffs. We continue to grind out, put the work in, do what we have to do to practice really well throughout the week. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter who our opponent is, we got to have a great week of practice and that shows up whenever that game is. How we work throughout the week, it\u2019ll show up then. Our process and mindset doesn\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Texans have never opened the playoffs on any day other than a Saturday. In the Ryans era, they have won wild-card round playoff games over the Los Angeles Chargers and Cleveland Browns in blowout fashion the past two years. They are winless in two AFC divisional round games, falling to the Kansas City Chiefs and the Ravens.<\/p>\n

As a franchise, the Texans are the only NFL team to never reach a championship game. They are 0-6 all-time in the divisional round and have set their ambitions on making a lengthy playoff run this year and are a confident team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re built tough,\u201d quarterback C.J. Stroud said. \u201cI think you look in here, you got \u2018S.W.A.R.M.\u2019 and \u2018relentless.\u2019 I think that\u2019s what we try to embody every game. I think we finally bought into it. I think as an offense, swarming looks different than defense swarming or special teams swarm. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we found that groove. I\u2019m just excited. I\u2019m really motivated to get going this next week. I\u2019m going to enjoy this win and regular season and get back to work tonight and I\u2019m excited to go into the playoffs and try to make some noise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 The Texans are headed to prime time as they\u2019ve been assigned a plum spot in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":493260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[532,4345,2505,1232,61590,1545,358,3187,136509],"class_list":{"0":"post-493259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-texans","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-nfl-playoffs","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-wild-card-round"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115840501884281533","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}